Apple might finally update its forgotten iPhone next year

The iPhone SE is the cheapest iPhone you can buy from Apple right now. It’s also the smallest one, retaining the form factor of the iPhone 5S. The current 4-inch iPhone SE is basically an iPhone 6s in a compact body, and it’s still quite a dependable handset. But it’s now almost two years old, since Apple did not release an iPhone SE 2 this year.

Now, a new report says that Apple is finally working with Wistron on the second-generation iPhone SE, which should hit stores at some point in the first half of 2018.

The original iPhone SE was unveiled in mid-March 2016, so it’d make sense to see the iPhone SE 2 launch around the same time next year. The Economic Daily News report doesn’t offer actual release dates for the handset but says the phone should come in 32GB and 128GB versions, with prices starting at $450.

Given that the iPhone SE received the same hardware as Apple’s flagship iPhones at the time, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the iPhone SE 2 sport the same A11 Bionic chip found on the iPhone 8 and iPhone X models. But then again, the A11 might be overkill for the smaller device, and the A10 Fusion CPU from the iPhone 7 could be Apple’s chipset of choice instead.

Previous rumors said the second-gen iPhone SE will have an A10 chip inside, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB or 128GB storage of storage. The Economic Daily News claims that the iPhone SE 2 will be a Wistron exclusive. A trial production run is set for late 2017, with mass-production supposed to start in the first quarter of next year.

Wistron is making iPhone SE phones in India, which is probably where the iPhone SE 2 will be manufactured as well, provided this report is accurate.